On June 25th, 2012, Golden Rule Insurance sent my wife and I a letter that we received on June 29th via snail mail that said our insurance premiums that were once affordable would now be receiving a rate adjustment. This adjustment was NOT based on our individual claim costs but was a COMBINED cost of ALL company policyholders who are on our same plan in our state of Kentucky. Effective as of 8/1/12, our insurance premium DOUBLED in cost. It wasn’t a few bucks or a hundred bucks…it DOUBLED in cost. But in order to make me feel better, the letter was nice enough to state the following…

“We (Golden Rule) are working hard to provide our customers with quality insurance at an affordable cost. In spite of our efforts, medical costs continue to go up due to increased use and higher charges for health care products and services. New technology and procedures often improve the quality of care but also contribute to rising costs. BLAH BLAH BLAH…Pttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhh…WHATEVER!

Here’s the thing…and maybe I’m being a LITTLE pessimistic, but I’m curious to what they are really doing to keep rising costs down? I’m sure they have an entire FLEET of people working on looking for ways to cut costs out there right now, combing through mounds of paperwork with all the best intentions in the world, working so hard to keep my health care costs down. NOT! In truth, this company, and all the others like it, are just money-grubbing whores who are out to steal money out of my pocket. My family visits the doctor MAYBE 5 times a year. Usually it’s for colds or some other small issue that works itself out. But with the way our country has scared us into thinking we NEED health insurance, now I’m left trying to find a way to pay for a health insurance premium that really doesn’t DO anything unless something major goes down (knock on wood) and it’s putting me in a deeper hole than we already are money-wise.

Oddly enough, 3 days after this letter was sent, the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act was passed by the US Supreme Court. So…what does this mean? It means for another year and a half, the health insurance companies can steal money from us until 2014, I guess. Because honestly…that’s what this seems like to me. It seems like Golden Rule (and probably other companies) saw the opportunity to gauge me and my family for more money and took the opportunity before any kind of true regulation came into play. So now we are stuck. We either go searching for another form of insurance which, let’s be honest, they ALL suck these days. Or we go without health insurance, roll the dice and see where we land. It’s right up there with life insurance now. You’re probably never gonna need it but you better have it if some idiot drives through a red light and sidewinds your SUV and you end up in traction for 2 months.

Crap. Can you IMAGINE the bill? Let’s see…60 days in a hospital. In the hospital, not only do you have to pay the doctors and nurses and for the medicine and the care (which is all well & good. They have to make their money too! And they deserve it for going through 20 years of college…) but THEN you have to pay for every bed sheet, every towel, every chocolate milk and every straw you use. And those straws ain’t cheap, my friends! I don’t have a bill in front of me but I have to imagine the cost of a good straw these days must be well towards $10 or so. And if you have say 10 drinks of water a day and can’t tilt that glass back by yourself? That’s $100. Which is NOT paid for by your insurance because somewhere in the fine print a lawyer has gone through and explained in great detail on page 231, article 6, section 8B that straws are NOT covered by Golden Rule Insurance due to the fact that they do not want to be liable if you happen to suck one down your throat.

Which TOTALLY makes sense.

Ya know…Andy Griffith died today, one of the greatest television icons of MY time (I imagine my kids have no clue who he is so they are outta luck), and back when he was a part of one of the greatest shows ever made, times were a LOT different. I can only wonder what the Sheriff would say about these days. I’m sure he would be able to find someway to make me feel better with a show-ending bit of knowledge and a quick smile. That guy had it all down. These days, we don’t have it so lucky. These days, there is no Sheriff. Or IS there? With the Obamacare being passed, will the GOVERNMENT step up and be our new Andy? Will they do as they have said and make it all better? Or will this legal form of stealing continue? We shall see, my friends…we shall see.